On how PhDs become human evil

"The one you defeated was a fragment of the Heroic Spirit's true form, a kind of clone. I am the same, just a part of Gilgamesh's existence. However, the difference between me and him is that I am now the young Gilgamesh."

Gilgamesh laughed.

"To be honest, I don't understand at all why I became like that when I grew up. Even if I was defeated, I deserved it."

(Does he dislike his future self that much...? But it's true, I can't sense Gilgamesh's madness in him. Although it's not entirely absent, it's too weak. If I had to describe it... at the level of a brat?)

After frowning and thinking for a moment, Bai Jie sighed and said, "Alright, I'll take your word for it and assume you're not a threat for now."

"Thank you so much..."

"Although I don't think you'll be a threat even when you grow up."

"...Big brother, has anyone ever told you that you have a terrible personality? You'll never find a wife if you keep acting like this."

"You don't need to worry about my marriage. By the way, my wife is almost a 100-year-old."

Young Gil collapsed onto the sofa, several black lines clearly appearing on his forehead: "Ugh, I can't believe someone would actually be interested in someone like you... I'm speechless..."

Ignoring Gilgamesh beside him, Julian looked at Bai Jie: "Are you the one Shirou Emiya mentioned who can save our world?"

"Saving is out of the question. The most I can do is kill that monster. As for how to restore the destroyed world to its original state, that's your business. I'm not so kind as to offer to renovate someone's house for free."

"Hmph, you've got quite the nerve. Are you really sure you can defeat that monster?"

"I'm not bragging, but I haven't seen anyone I can't beat yet. I've taken down quite a few gods, demons, and beast kings."

"You're good at making grand pronouncements, but how can I be sure you're telling the truth? Words are no proof."

Julian is basically certain that Bai Jie is just here to lie. Defeating a god? Humans can hardly even defeat Heroic Spirits, let alone gods. Besides, gods have been gone from the earth for thousands of years. If he really defeated a god, he would be at least thousands of years old. Is it possible for a person to live for thousands of years?

The first head of the Eindsworth family survived to this day by swapping himself with his descendants using a family-inherited substitution magic, but that's only been about a thousand years.

In response to Julian's distrust, Bai Jie shrugged: "Okay, like you said, words are meaningless, but I don't need to gain your trust. To be honest, if Emiya hadn't said he was coming to pick you up, I wouldn't have come here at all."

"Whether you trust me or not, I'm going to set off tomorrow to take down that monster. Your opinion is useless to me, understand? Kid."

Bai Jie's words made Julian's face darken instantly.

Before Julian could speak, Beatrice, his number one fan, couldn't hold back any longer: "You...who gave you permission to speak to Lord Julian like that—"

Beatrice's voice stopped abruptly, and her body, which had just stood up, froze in mid-air in a very stiff posture.

"A binding-type Mystic Eye? That kind of thing—"

"The Demon Eye? What are you talking about?"

Bai Jie interrupted Julian.

"I just used a simple binding spell to immobilize her. Don't let my appearance fool you, I'm quite skilled at omitting incantations."

A binding spell that omits the incantation?

(I see. So he's not just a big talker; he must have some real skills. But if that's all he has—)

"boom!"

The invisible spell binding her shattered instantly, and a purple light flashed from Beatrice's pocket.

"Limited-time offer!"

With Beatrice's sharp cry, her right arm instantly swelled to a size larger than herself, covered in silver-white armor. As a bolt of lightning flashed in her palm, a strangely shaped giant hammer suddenly appeared in her hand.

"Then... let's begin the slaughter!"

A cruel sneer flickered across Beatrice's lips as she suddenly swung the giant hammer down hard on Bai Jie. She didn't aim anywhere; given the size of the hammer, hitting anywhere would be enough to kill Bai Jie—that's what Beatrice thought.

"Clang!"

The giant hammer stopped less than five centimeters from Bai Jie's body, sparks flying out with a strong wind, completely destroying everything in the room.

Seeing the black spear floating beside Bai Jie, Beatrice's body trembled violently: "Impossible... that spear..."

"Ah, you were scared? That's right, this gun is like a natural enemy to someone like you."

Hastily retracting her giant hammer and leaping a distance, Beatrice stared intently at Bai Jie. Perhaps because she had used a card and her abilities had been elevated to the level of a Heroic Spirit, Beatrice was only now sensing the abnormality in Bai Jie.

"You're kidding me... What kind of ridiculous magic is this... Are you even human?!"

“Who knows? Although I may no longer be considered human, I believe my heart is still human. Anyway, back to the point—” Bai Jie gripped the Holy Lance, “Like I said before, your things are not important to me at all. You can go back together if you want, or you can not. It’s up to you.”

"in addition--"

Boom—!

The Holy Lance swept across, and a jet-black spear light burst forth from the tip, instantly slicing through the entire house like a scythe. In the next instant, Julian, Angelica, and Beatrice were all sent flying backward, crashing through the wall and landing in the courtyard.

"I'm not some pushover. Since you've been rude to me, I won't be rude to you either. You'd better watch your words in the future."

"Let's go, Emiya."

The Holy Lance dissipated into black mist, and Bai Jie, without walking, directly performed a spatial teleportation magic on the spot, taking Emiya Shirou back to the hotel.

Looking at the mess Bai Jie had made of the house, the only one who was unharmed, Young Gil scratched his head in distress: "Oh dear, how am I supposed to deal with this? This is beyond just tidying up."

Section 494, Chapter 48: Finally, the fight broke out.

"Oh, so this is another parallel world. It's really quite desolate."

"Although it's Fuyuki City, it's really different from that place. It's summer, yet it's still snowing. Has the Earth's axis shifted?"

"Hey bro, we're not here for tourism, you need to be more careful."

Bai Jie and Kiana are now walking on the streets of Fuyuki City, but unlike usual, this is not the Fuyuki City they were in before, but the Fuyuki City of a parallel world where Emiya and his friends are.

Snowflakes drifted down from the sky, the earth was covered in white, and the sunlight was obscured by thick clouds...

Looking around, all they could see was a scene of ruins, like the aftermath of the apocalypse. There wasn't a single intact building in sight, not even a single intact wall. The ground was covered with large pits and cracks.

"This world is really pathetic."

Bai Jie sighed as he withdrew his mental energy.

"There are no living organisms within a 200-kilometer radius, and it's probably the same in other places. The species in this world have probably become completely extinct."

"How could this be...?"

"And that's not the worst of it. If it were just the destruction of human civilization, that would be one thing. At most, it would just develop again after tens of thousands of years, like the Honkai world. But this world no longer has that ability."

"How to say?"

Reaching out and grabbing at the air, feeling the emptiness in his hand, Bai Jie said, "This world has lost its magic."

Kiana was stunned for a moment.

During her time in the Type-Moon world, with Mostima's help, she crammed on the knowledge of this world and gained some understanding of the existence of magic. To put it extremely, magic is actually life force. Life force is converted into magic through magic circuits for the magician to use. Therefore, if magic is depleted, it will inevitably leave the magician in an extremely weak state.

The world is the same.

This world has lost its magic; what Bai Jie meant by that is—this world has lost its vitality.

In other words, the world is dead.

"Dayuan has completely disappeared. This world is really tragic. That monster really went too far."

"Did that magical beast absorb all the magic power?"

"I didn't mention the other one, but we can't rule out the possibility that he didn't know this either. If it can absorb magic, then the situation is probably going to get complicated."

Bai Jie's greatest reliance is magic power. Once his magic power is targeted, his combat power will drop by at least half. In the previous battle with the Herrscher of the End, Bai Jie was completely suppressed because the Herrscher of the End used a magic-suppressing domain.

"Hey bro, where should we go to find that monster? Seriously, are the two of us sure we can manage on our own?"

Just as Kiana said, only Bai Jie and Kiana were standing here. No one else, including Bailia, came with them. Even Mostima, who brought them here, was sent back by Bai Jie immediately after arriving.

In response to Kiana's question, Bai Jie simply said, "I might be serious for once in a long time, and when I'm serious, I don't distinguish between friend and foe."

"Huh? Then I..."

"You're fine, because you're my wife, you carry my scent, and my power automatically assumes you're me."

"And one more thing—we don't need to go looking for it, it's already here."

Whoosh!

The moment Bai Jie finished speaking, Kiana was suddenly startled to realize that the earth had been covered by darkness. Looking up, she saw a colossal black beast hundreds of kilometers long.

It was a three-headed dragon, entirely black, with six blade-like sharp wings on its back. Dragon scales covered its entire body like armor, and black demonic flames burned fiercely on its four claws. Terrifying magical fluctuations mixed with dragon might descended.

Just as Emiya said, this monster is a walking natural disaster.

"------"

Seemingly noticing Bai Jie and Kiana's presence, the three heads of the three-headed dragon turned towards them.

"Human beings."

"It's a human."

"There are still survivors."

The three dragon heads spoke in different tones and expressions.

Scratching his head, Bai Jie was somewhat surprised: "I thought you guys were irrational."

"Initially, we were indeed irrational."

"But after they've eaten all the humans in this world."

"After absorbing all the magic in this world."

"We have gained wisdom!"

The three-headed dragon's enormous body shrank rapidly, almost instantly shrinking to a height of two meters. Its original dragon form transformed into a dragon-human shape, and two of its three dragon heads moved to its shoulders.

"Have you learned how to transform?" Bai Jie frowned.

"There are magicians among humans—"

"After eating the magician—"

"You've learned magic tricks!"

Boundless magic erupted from the three-headed dragon, and the magical fluctuations swept outwards in an instant!